Long Island housing market posts seventh straight Q2 price hike

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Long Island’s housing market is on a winning streak. According to Douglas Elliman’s latest market report, the median sales price in the peninsula rose by 5.6 percent year-on-year to $404,000, marking the seventh consecutive second quarter of growth in the area. During the period, Long Island’s average sales price also jumped 3.5 percent to $487,442.

The price hikes coincided with heightened demand for Long Island homes. According to Douglas Elliman’s data, which excluded sales from North Fork and The Hamptons, the peninsula registered rising sales and falling inventory. During the quarter, there were 6,690 sales in the area, which amounts to a 5.8 percent jump compared to the same period last year. The figure represents Long Island’s highest second quarter sales in twelve years. Listing inventory, meanwhile, dropped 16.3 percent to 13,391 homes. This amounts to the lowest second quarter supply in twelve years.

“Tighter market conditions continued to press price trend indicators higher,” the report read. “Because sales were overpowered by demand, the pace of the market was the fastest second quarter in 14 years.”

The absorption rate, which is the number of months needed to sell the area’s inventory at the current rate of sales, dropped by 21.1 percent to six months. The number of days that homes spent on the market, meanwhile, stood at 87 days. That was 16 days faster than the figure from last year.

The numbers were buoyed by gains in the luxury housing segment, which expanded its share of the overall residential market. The number of closed sales for luxury homes grew by 15.3 percent to 670 deals, outpacing the growth in closed sales in the wider market. Meanwhile, the median sales price of luxury homes rose by 7.1 percent to $1,125,000. The area’s average sales price was flat, increasing by just one percent to $1,347,576.

While Long Island offers no escape to rising home prices, there are areas where cheaper inventory persists. Suffolk County has the lowest-priced homes in the peninsula. During the quarter, the median sales price of houses in the South Shore stood at just $310,000. The figure amounts to a 4.8 percent increase from last year. However, it is about $170,000 less than the median price in Nassau County.